{Book Review} Midnight In The Graveyard: Edited By Kenneth W. Cain

Midnight In The Graveyard: Edited By Kenneth W. Cain

Reviewed by Steve Stred

• Paperback: 443 pages
• Publisher: Silver Shamrock Publishing (October 13, 2019)

Silver Shamrock Publishing decided to swing for the fences with this anthology and boy did they hit a home run. All of the boxes for horror fans are checked off here and how you wouldn’t want to read this is beyond me.

Let’s run the list shall we?

Fantastic cover art done by Elderlemon Design aka Kealan Patrick Burke? Check.

Foreword written by one of the nicest guys out there (and a decent writer some would say), Jonathan Janz? Check.

A who’s who of authors contributing stories that are great reads buts also creepy as Hell? Check.

The table of contents of this thing reads like a bestseller’s list on Amazon, even including the giant of horror that is Robert R. McCammon. I would wager that the number of Bram Stoker nominations and wins in this collection is close to being the most in a single release in some time.

With a list of so many great authors, I found all of the stories very enjoyable.

I’ll highlight a few that really creeped me out or connected with me.

‘Sawmill Road’ – Ronald Kelly. What a great creepy story. I loved the folklore/small-town gossip aspect of what happened to create the bones of this story. Having grown up in a town with sawmills and logging, there were always a few stories floating around about severed limbs and gruesome deaths.

‘Justin’s Favorite’ – Jeremy Hepler. Good grief did this one give me the heebie-jeebies. Hepler packs a novel’s worth of chills into a short story here. I dug the ‘first time owning a house together’ aspect and as things started to unravel, he kept his foot firmly on the gas.

‘Drown’ – Hunter Shea. I adored this story of a ghost chaser struggling with possibly losing her powers. The dynamic of the couple was great and the setting was fantastic. The ending worked fantastically and I’d love to read more about these two.

‘Portrait’ – Kealan Patrick Burke. Not only did KPB design a stunning cover, but he also delivers a stunning story. I really loved the way this one unfurled and Kealan once again shows just why he’s one of my favorite authors.

My top story, the one that I really need to highlight here was ‘Join My Club’ by Somer Canon.

This one was emotional, devastating and if every other story kept the scary at 100, this one sat firmly at 200. A small child dealing with horrible parents finds a possible friend in the shed outside.

At one point while reading this, I was lying in bed with my son asleep beside me. Right at a pivotal point, our heating kicked in and how my bladder didn’t let go is anyone’s guess. Well done – you almost literally scared the **** out of me.

Overall, this is a stellar collection and after having read some novels/novellas from Silver Shamrock already, it’s great to see that they can deliver a stunning anthology.

This is truly a must-read for all horror fans and I think this will be an anthology that people rave about for many, many years to come.

Midnight In The Graveyard

Midnight. Some call it the witching hour.

Others call it the devil’s hour. Here in the graveyard, midnight is a very special time.

It is a time when ghostly spirits are at their strongest, when the veil between our world and theirs is at its thinnest.

Legend has it, that while most of the world is asleep, the lack of prayers allow the spirits to communicate under the cover of darkness, among the headstones, their whispers rustling in the leaves of the old oak trees.

But if you’re here in the graveyard, you can tell yourself it’s just the wind, that the moonlight is playing tricks on your eyes, that it’s only the swirling mist you see.

But when you hear the graveyard gate clang shut, the dead have something to say.

Here are their stories…

You can buy Midnight In The Graveyard from Amazon UK & Amazon US

Steve Stred

Steve Stred writes dark, bleak horror fiction.

Steve is the author of the novels Invisible & The Stranger, the novellas The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, and the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun.

On September 1st, 2019 his second collection of dark poetry and drabbles called The Night Crawls In will arrive. This release was specifically created to help fund the 1st Annual LOHF Writers Grant.

Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.

Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.

You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred

You can visit Steve’s Official website here